DTE outages: 6,000 in Oakland, 3,000 in Macomb

DTE Energy on Sunday continued to make progress in restoring power to homes and businesses left without electricity following a series of strong thunderstorms that moved through the region over the weekend.

As of Sunday evening, had restored power to 121,000 utility customers but 18,000 still had no service, according to a news release from DTE Energy. That’s down from the peak of 145,000 -- the largest number of outages of the year, DTE Energy officials said.

The majority of the remaining outages are in Oakland County with 6,000, along with 5,000 in Wayne County and 3,000 in Macomb County. A utility spokeswoman said 90 percent of those should be restored by Sunday or early Monday.

“That storm carried high winds that snapped poles and downed power lines throughout the region,” said spokeswoman Randi Berris. “Our crews have been working around the clock to restore power to neighborhoods as fast as possible.”

Berris said DTE has crews working 16-hour shifts to restore service. Additional personnel have been brought in from Indiana and Ohio and more manpower is expected to arrive today from Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

DTE crews prioritize jobs and focus on restoring the largest blocks of customers first in an approach the utility calls “restore before repair.” That explains why some customers in a neighborhood will have power while others will not.

Several rounds of severe thunderstorms tracked across southeast Michigan between the afternoon hours of Friday and the early morning hours of Saturday. The system carried winds gusting to 60 mph, which accounted for most of the damage, according to the National Weather Service.